Philadelphia Insurance Triathlon - Olympic Race - TriathlonOlympic

tim and i started together to the right of the buoy. earl headed back a little to have some more room. the current was fairly strong and we got in the water so early that we were all hitting each other trying to stay behind the start line. i've never been beat up before a swim even started!

i planned on sprinting it out with everyone else and then ducking off to the right if it got too bad. the first 20 strokes were rough, but after that it cleared up a lot. for a while i was pretty much alone, so i am guessing my navigation wasn't so great. i tried to just have a solid swim and keep pushing. it ended up working out pretty well.

sight the first 100 meters better.

it is a decently long run, but i tried to go hard the whole time. i turned down the wrong lane, but i was able to duck under the bar and transition even with that, it was pretty fast.

go down correct lane.

i really like this course. it can get pretty busy, but i found the beginners were a lot better this year about staying to the right.
it has some climbing as well as some fast sections. the road is very wide and closed to traffic and the downhills and turns are very manageable even at speed. there were some sections that were 4 lanes + shoulders of open road!

i pushed the entire bike pretty hard. the first climb is tougher and longer than i remembered, but it was ok and i stayed in control. i got to see tim on the little out and back section and i got to see k on my second loop. i had a lot of fun and it went by quickly.

i ate 3/4 of a gu from my flask on each loop after the bridge. not the best location to eat, but it worked out ok.

nothing.

maybe my best transition ever. perfect dismount, sprinted with the bike over the curb and got through fast.
no one in my AG beat me by more than 1 sec.

nothing.

when i started the run, sis told me i was 3:00 back on tim. that's not easy, but worth a shot. i had no idea how my running would be with my hip issues and no speedwork, but i was able to have a fast run at the sprint in may, so i was hopeful.

the first out and back is only ~1mile so i would get a pretty early time check. i had made up nearly a minute when i hit the turn around and sis said it was down to 1:50 when i started the second out and back. i saw laura and k and was feeling pretty solid so i decided to keep pushing and see what happened. i wasn't too hopeful on catching tim, but i knew i needed to keep the pressure on just in case and i also needed to push hard if i wanted to beat mayor fenty. he put the smack down on me at cherry blossom and i was looking forward to notching another win.

the next few miles all blended together and it started to get pretty hot. i saw earl towards the end of his ride and we yelled some encouragement. finally i had another runner come up on me at the perfect pace. just faster than me, but slow enough for me to hang on. i eased in behind and rode his heels all the way to the finish. we were ~:50 back a tthe turn and reeled tim within view with about half a mile to go. i didn't have any more to give, but we were still gaining and i thought i had a chance if we caught tim by surprise. i tried to hide behind the other guy as best i could, but tim spotted me and was able to hold me off in the final sprint. we ran a 6:20 pace for the final 1.2 miles, but it wasn't quite enough. hurts like hell, but it sure was fun trying! it felt like alexander and lieto at the end of boise

nothing.

cheered on other racers and grabbed some food. great times!


hip issues probably cost me a little, but not too bad.


all around great race. great course. well run. great post race.
i definitely recommend it.